Mass Effect: Changing Tides
by Jeffhardy5666
Summary: From the missions "Changing Tides" and "Rip Current" from Medal of Honor: Warfighter comes my version in the Mass Effect universe with everyone's favorite Quarian engineer and marine.
1. Mission Briefing

AN: This story is based on the missions "Changing Tides" and "Rip Current" from Medal of Honor: Warfighter. This is my Mass Effect version of those missions.

Also go check out _Calinstel - To Survive _series, I enjoy it, and maybe you would too.

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><p><strong>Chapter 1: Mission Briefing<strong>

Assembled in the Neema's briefing room stood Tali, Chris, Kal, and many other marines waiting for the official briefing to start. Due to the amount of people in the room, it was hard for Chris to make out and singular conversation, but instead snippets of multiple ones. One bit of information caught his attention, and now he was trying to listen to more.

"I heard that this will be a co-op mission with the Alliance, if it is, then I think we are just being used as cannon fodder." said one marine.

"I doubt that, but why are we even working with them? I mean, we get nothing in information from them, now we are in a joint mission? It doesn't make sense." replied the other.

All conversations died down as Admiral Han'Gerrel walked toward a small podium

in the front of the room. The room was deathly silent as Gerrel began to speak.

"All of you are here today for a special mission for the fleet. One of our pilgrims is stuck on a small human colony and needs extraction, however due to special circumstances, the Alliance has asked us to help with a hostage situation in the colony. The Alliance reports that a category four hurricane has hit the colony and caused massive destruction to the infrastructure. Therefore, the Admiralty Board has agreed to help, and this is where you come in.

Three small teams will insert at various locations and rendezvous at a small market before proceeding to their respective objectives. Team Alpha will consist of Tali'Zorah, Christopher, and one sniper team. Team Bravo will Kal'Reegar and three other marines of his choice. Team Charlie will be the rest acting as support. Team leader for Alpha will be Tali'Zorah. Team leader for Bravo will be Kal'Reegar. Team leader for Charlie will be Zusin'Hus. We will depart at 1300 and link up with Alliance forces before moving on to the colony. Any questions? No? Good.

All team leaders, find your squad and wait for additional briefing."

As the brief general meeting was concluded, everyone split into their respective teams.

"It's not even 7 in the morning and I'm already on another mission, squad leader too. Keelah, this was easier with Shepard." Remarked Tali as Chris approached her.

"Well good morning to you too, Tali. Guessing you didn't sleep well?"

"I slept well, thank you very much, it's just that this is my first mission as a squad leader."

"Bah, don't worry, it's not like you're responsible for our lives here...well, actually you are."

"Like that makes me feel SO much better…. bosh'tet."

"All joking aside, you'll be fine, all we have to do is get them to the designated point. You and me are on escort duty."

"It's just that, what if it goes wrong? This could be big for future missions. I'm nervous _saera._"

Chris took this opportunity to wrap his arms around his Quarian girlfriend, hands on the small of her back, and bring her into a hug while trying to console her on her daunting task ahead.

"Tali, _saera, _I'll be with you every step, every shot, and every thought along the way. Whether it's the mission or our lives, I'll be there for you always."

Tali smiled under her helmet at her human boyfriend for the use of the Khelish language. She knew he wasn't a quarian, it was obvious, and he knew it too. That doesn't mean he won't try his hardest to make this relationship work to the best of his abilities. While they had their little intimate moment, it seems as life has different plans.

Chris saw the admiral approach, now finished with Kal's squad, and slowly make his way through the crowd of people over to their section.

With a couple of brief taps on Tali's shoulder, she turned around and saluted the admiral, along with everyone else in the squad.

"Tali, I expect the very best from you, the Admiralty Board needs this to go well, and your squad will be the main one, I do not need to remind you what your father thinks of failures." Han said.

He continued "Now, you four will be landing one klik south of the hotel from which the sniping team will set up on the roof. You two" pointing to Chris and Tali, "are going to make sure they get there. The routes will be provided to your omni-tools once we are en route to the colony. Any questions?"

Chris raised his hand and asked "What will our extraction be? I would be assuming shuttle, but with the flooding and destruction, I'm not sure if that is our way out for sure."

Han responded "I believe the Alliance is prototyping a couple of new shuttle carriers, so they will most likely use those. However, I believe they will use RHIBs, that is what the info they sent over said anyway."

"Will there be Alliance air support on station if we need any?"

"I believe so, they will clarify once we link up."

"No more questions, sir."

With no more questions, Gerrel looked over each one in the group and said "Very well, make sure you are ready to leave. Keelah Se'lai."

"Keelah Se'lai" responded the group.

The meeting now officially concluded, Tali and Chris walked out into the halls of the Neema, discussing the mission now looming ahead in a couple of hours.

"Lets head over to the armory and weapons check before we leave, I have to grab my M4 and vest." suggested Chris.

"You're going to use the M4? Why not the giant gun...thingy?" responded Tali.

"Giant gun thingy? OH, you mean the 249, it's CQB Tali, not a lot of space. Besides, I have to repair it anyway."

"Wait, why do you have to fix it? What did you do?"

Chris rubbed the back of his neck sheepishly looking for a way to best respond.

"Chris, what. Did. You. Do." Tali asked now slowly inching her way until her mask was inches away from his.

Chris, knowing that she wouldn't stay mad for long, took a breath and responded "I might have use the gun as a club… took out a prime though, so not a total loss."

Tali could only respond with one word, amazed at how his response was to not pull out his pistol, no, it was to beat the damn thing with his gun. "Keelah…" she stated while trying to rub her temples, well, where the would be if the mask wasn't in the way. She had him to blame for this habit.

"Let's get to the armory, wouldn't want to be late...squad leader." quipped Chris, before earning a slap to the back of the head.

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><p><strong>CQB  CQC:** **Close Quarters Battle / Close Quarters Combat** - Combat occurring in close quarters, such as indoors, streets and ally ways where surroundings severely limits maneuverability and visibility to the point where standard methods, equipment and tactics are no longer suitable.

**Klik** - One Kilometer

**RHIB** - Rigid Hull Inflatable Boat

**Keelah Se'lai** - "By the home world I hope to see one day."

**Saera** - Term used when speaking to ones lifemate. Literal translation: My souls soul. Other meanings include, but are not limited to: Keeper of my soul and My souls protector. Most commonly used word throughout the fleet by a quarian when speaking privately to their lifemate. Though unconfirmed by any quarian, there are implications that this word holds extreme intimacy as well as absolute trust. No single human word or phrase encompassed all that this one short word implies as it appears to contain both dominance and submissive traits.

**Bosh'tet** - curse/insult, likely being relative to "son-of-a-bitch" or "bastard".


	2. Insertion

AN: This story is based on the missions "Changing Tides" and "Rip Current" from Medal of Honor: Warfighter. This is my Mass Effect version of those missions.

Also go check out _Calinstel - To Survive _series, I enjoy it, and maybe you would too.

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><p><strong>Chapter 2: Insertion<strong>

_1830 Hours - (Classified Location) - Earth Date: August 19, 2185_

"Hey Tali, you ready?" asked Chris, sitting beside her in a small Alliance shuttle made for rapid insertions and extractions.

"I'm nervous, ready, but nervous" replied Tali

"We're five mikes out, this is your show now Tali."

Now one minute out from the drop off point, Tali stood up and addressed the group as squad leader for this mission.

"Alright everyone listen up! We are one minute out, so any last-minute gear checks, do them now. Once on the ground we are in radio silence until the area is clear. Understood?"

"Yes, Ma'am!" responded the group in unison.

With the shuttle hovering above the ground, Tali opened the shuttle door and motioned everyone outside. Chris is out first, landing in a crouch with a small grunt, and providing a guard for the rest of the team to vacate the shuttle and form a small ring of protection.

With the shuttle now gone, Tali motioned her hand forward, and the rest of the group followed, reaching a small treeline giving the group some cover.

"Tali to squad, comms check, everyone hear me alright?"

"Garcia to squad leader, comms are green."

"Cinna to squad leader, read you loud and clear."

"Rehe to squad leader, comms are a go."

"Everyone has their gear secured?" Asked Tali with her head turned to the group.

No protests came from the rest, so Tali motioned for Chris to take point, being the only one in any sort of camouflage.

During their meeting on the Neema's armory, everybody kitted up in a way that complimented their individual strengths and weaknesses.

Chris would be wearing an Olive Drab plate carrier fitted with Multicam pouches to break the color, and the plate carrier would allow him to be better suited for multiple situations. His Multicam uniform allowed him to blend in better with the environment, and differentiate himself from the Alliance marines. On the back of the carrier is a three-day assault pack, capable of carrying everything from breaching charges to rope to medical gear. And with the additional armor provided with the plate inserts, this naturally led him to be on lead position for the lineup.

His weapons, though some would say were outdated, would be a suppressed M4 that Tali modified to take thermal clips. She had managed to replace the trigger mechanism with a mass effect generator, and made the top receiver end take the clip where the bolt would normally go. Magazines still used normal 5.56 NATO rounds, but the casings were made to evaporate from the heat of the mass effect generator. It was an ingenious design she incorporated into his other guns, and this made him all the more better for a support role.

Tali opted to keep her beloved HMWSG Master line shotgun, a gift from Shepard toward the end of the Saren campaign. She modified it to take the now standard thermal clips, rather than the now outdated cooling systems that plagued her in the past. Her iconic purple realk marking her as an engineer, and a damn good one at that.

Cinna'Godda vas Leyya came in third of the stack, and her loadout came with a standard issue pistol on her hip, and a M-92 Mantis she managed to pick up around the first few months of the year. She was the undisputed best in her class, and could give Garrus a run for his credit chits. Her cardinal red realk identifying her as a soldier.

Rehe'Rura vas Seji was at the tail end, making sure that some bos'tet wouldn't sneak up on them. She opted to go with an Avenger assault rifle, and a shotgun in the small of her back. On her hip, sitting in a pouch was a SOFLAM, while her visor was able to magnify the image she saw, it was unable to designate or tag targets for Cinna.

With Chris on point, he led the team through a small pathway not littered by rubble. Everything was fine until he held up a fist parallel to his body, signifying the group to halt. Tali crouch-walked her way up to Chris, after having seen him signifying for silence, and saw a lone guard standing with his back toward the group.

Not wanting to alert any other possible guards in the area, Chris unsheathed his combat knife and snuck up on the guard. Then came the kill by violently grabbing the guard by his left shoulder and dragging him back, so his back was now on Chris's chest. Chris then took the very sharp, and very pointy knife, and decided that the guard was going to hold it for a moment...with his chest. With the knife embedded to the hilt, Chris pulled the knife out and slashed it across the guards neck, rewarding him with a gurgle as the guard tried to stop the flow of blood out of his body and on the ground.

Cleaning the blood off with the now very dead guard's clothes, Chris sheathed the knife and signaled to continue advancing. The terrain was getting harder to traverse from all the rubble caused by the storm, and a few outlying showers silenced the groups steps.

Rehe spoke up on the comms, as she was taken aback by all the destruction caused. "Keelah, a storm caused all this?" she asked.

"Hurricanes are very large storms, and dangerous as well, it seems as if these people needed a reminder of that." Chris said.

"But why all of this destruction? A storm shouldn't cause this much damage." Cinna remarked, unable to accept that Chris ignored all of this.

"Cinna, hurricanes aren't just regular storms, that's why they are classified differently. Not to mention this was a category four hurricane, and that's not even the highest category." replied Chris as they stopped walking to survey the terrain ahead.

Tali decided to join the conversation by asking "Chris, you seem to ignore this as a common occurrence, can you atleast help us understand?"

"Alright, what do you want to know?" responded Chris looking at Tali.

"What's a hurricane first of all?"

"A hurricane is simply spinning humid air. What makes them dangerous is how fast that air spins. We have categories dependant on wind speed from tropical storm to category five. Category four hurricanes have wind speeds of 130 to 150 miles per hour."

"Keelah, no wonder the place looks like this." remarked Cinna, looking around at all the collapsed or ruined buildings.

"That's not the worst part, these houses were made of wood, their not prefabs. I'm guessing for whatever reason, wood houses were better than prefabs. Although maybe the colony was better developed, which would explain the hotel, but not the houses."

"Wait, why are wood houses bad? Aren't they easy to make?" asked Rehe, stepping forward to get a better view of the scene.

"They are easy to make, but they aren't as durable. See all these splinters? That's why you don't build wood houses, the building literally becomes a death trap. We really need to get moving, we're 200 meters out from the target building."

"Cut the chatter and move people, on the double!" ordered Tali, once again entering command mode.

Approaching what the squad would consider a guard post, Chris motioned Tali forward to talk.

"Tali, tally one target by the door, watch my six."

Chris slowly crept up to the guard, knife in hand, and a target in his sights. Sweeping his legs and pushing him back caused the surprised guard to fall to the ground on his back. Chris lifted the knife above his head, and brought it down with all the force he could muster, plunging the cold and unforgiving steel through the vital organs. With the guard now dead from a bad case of internal bleeding, the team proceeded on with the operation.

"Alpha squad, bravo and charlie made it O.P. Alice, how copy?"

"Alpha to Overlord, good copy." Replied Tali.

Signaling to stop, Chris has spotted a lone person past a now-destroyed home, but with no visible way of approaching him safely.

"Tali, one person to my front, but I don't see a route of getting to him without alerting. Permission to fire?"

"Permission granted, fire when ready."

Flicking off the safety and taking aim, finger tightening around the trigger ever so slowly, rain pouring from the skies. Chris spotted another guard acting as overwatch, on the second floor of a house with the wall blown out.

"Crap, down! Get down!" he said into the com.

Everyone hugged the wall for cover, hoping their cover wasn't blown and the operation gone to waste.

"Cinna, on me, need some help over here."

"You see that guy over there? Second floor about 40 meters away."

"I got eyes on, ready to fire on your mark." she replied

Cenna and Chris each sighted in on their targets. The only sound heard between the two was:

"3..2..1..mark."

Two shots, two kills. No sound of the bodies dropping, or the reverberation of the rounds hitting their target. Only the sound of the storm and the steady cadence of rain on sheet metal.

"Move." Chris ordered.

"We're approaching a house, time to get muddy." he stated.

Crawling through the mud under the floorboards, voices could be heard from above.

"Go figure, Batarians are here, which means this could be a Blue Suns op." said Tali.

"Doesn't matter, we have hostages to rescue. Hold up, stationary guard, I got him."

Chris pulled out him M9 from his holster, affixing a suppressor to it, and aiming at the guards head. Firing the subsonic round, the batarians head exploded outward in a mess of blood and brain matter. Dropping back into a prone, he holstered his pistol and raising his rifle, he fired 3 center-mass shots to kill another standing outside.

Now out from under the building, the team jogs to a cinder block wall. Tali gets a transmission from bravo team, saying:

"Bravo Actual to Alpha Actual, we are breaking off from direct path, omnitool is showing multiple contact with weapons, over."

"Understood, we're making good time on our side, meet you at the X. Alpha One, out." Tali replied.

"Chris, take him out, nice and quiet." she said, and two shots to center mass did just that.

Moving into another house, the team took cover under some windows where the group could see three people standing around.

"Three people, team up on this, weapons free. Go on you Chris." Tali said.

Chris, Tali and Rehe each lined up their sights on a target, and squeezed the triggers. The enemy fell quickly under the volley of fire, not even getting a chance to move.

"Clear, move up." Said Chris as he vaulted over a low wall. "Door, get ready to breach."

The team stacked up on the door, two on each side. Chris and Rehe on the left, Tali and Cinna on the right. Tali ordered for Chris to kick down the door while she prepared a flashbang.

"Ready? Breach!"

Chris swings out from the left side of the door and viciously kicks toward the handle, busting the door open, allowing Tali to toss in the flash bang and swing back into cover. Grenade explodes and Chris rushes in first, weapon up and firing, with Tali coming in second and raining hell with her shotgun. Bodies hit the floor full of holes, and blood covers the floor and walls like a new coat of paint.

The squad rushes outside when Rehe spots two snipers in towers ahead of the group.

"Snipers, take cover!" she says to the group.

"This is Alpha One, requesting air support on designated targets, how copy?"

"Alpha Actual this is Mako One, direct air support is unavailable at this time. Acknowledge."

"Acknowledged. What about indirect support?"

"We can handle that, paint your targets and leave the rest to us."

"Copy, will designate, Alpha One out."

"Rehe, laze those building for Alliance ordinance." Tali ordered.

"Lazing targets now...targets painted." Rehe replied.

"Mako One this is Alpha One-One, targets are painted, waiting for splash."

Mortar rounds scream through the air as they collide with the sides of the tower and explode into great flashes of light. Plumes of smoke rise from where the fallen towers once stood.

"Well, so much for going silent. Go loud, weapons free." Tali said while the debris tried to settle.

"Pick up the pace, let's go!" she ordered.

The one word that makes soldiers hit cover like madmen would be what Chris yelled from up front.

"Contact!"

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><p><strong>Realk<strong> - Cloth covering used by the quarians. It is used to describe not just the hood seen on most but any material adornment.

**SOFLAM** - Special Operations Forces Laser Marker

**Actual** - Top commander within the group. Tali would be Alpha Actual, Kal would be Bravo Actual.


End file.
